Presenters:

In 2016, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched the first artists-in-residence program at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. The program offered artists the chance to provide their own interpretation of the Games and thus open up Olympism and its values to the widest possible audience. In 2018, for the first time in history, the IOC invited Olympians who are also artists to the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, Korea, to be a part of the Olympic Art Project. Olympians used their talents to share a different view on the Games through the film “Olympic Dreams” and a one-of-a-kind painting.

As a longtime supporter of the arts in the U.S.-Japan context, and with its strong relationship with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) is uniquely positioned to play an important artistic role in bringing U.S.-Japan artistic collaboration to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020.

In 2020, the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will be held in Tokyo, Japan. This event offers longtime partners, JUSFC and NEA the opportunity to highlight U.S.-Japan collaboration and the U.S.-Japan relationship. JUSFC and NEA invite leading contemporary and traditional artists from the United States to apply for a unique collaborative artistic fellowship designed to highlight U.S.-Japan artistic partnerships during the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The completed collaborative artistic projects will be showcased in Tokyo during the Olympic Games July 24-August 9, 2020, and/or Paralympic Games August 25- September 6, 2020.